“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania”: “It was thanks to Jean-Marc Vallée that I got this role” – Kathryn Newton

“She believed in me, she said in an interview with the QMI Agency while she was in Toronto. I then had a meeting with Peyton Reed, the director. I was in my closet because it's the quietest place in the house since I have three poodles. We talked about Cassie Lang, the story of a father and daughter reconnecting, and a new villain called Kang. I remember telling her that it would be an extraordinary film and that the actress who would be chosen to play Cassie would have a wonderful experience.”

“A week later, I was answering questions from the journalists for Freakyand I answered “A super heroine” when I was asked what my ideal role was. And a few days later, I got the call offering me the role of Cassie! She now has a costume that resembles that of her father, Scott, and is therefore able to fight, shrink and become giant.

“I started my training six months before the start of filming, I run in more than half of the film, she explained to us. Peyton didn't want me to modify my body at all, I needed to acquire endurance since Cassie is young. Above all, I learned to fall and take the blows. It allowed me to have confidence in myself and to shoot for 10 hours without collapsing. I'm athletic, I'm a golfer, so I kind of felt like I'd been training my whole life for this role.”

The legacy of Jean-Marc Vallée

Before and during filming, Kathryn Newton was able to count on Paul Rudd who gave her sound advice.

“Paul is quite simply the nicest person in the world. He encouraged me to take risks, not to censor myself. He told me that it was normal to be afraid, to not know and that I had to practice letting go. It's simple, I want to look like him now. This is why the father-daughter relationship was so easy to establish. It's open and gave me all the space I needed to have fun.”

Because, “on set, the Quantum Realm was a total mess,” she explained, referring to the fact that the actors had no idea what the special effects department was going to add in post-production. “I had no idea what I was looking at, it made no sense. And I'm so happy with the end result. That's what I appreciate about Marvel, they are films that transport you elsewhere, a bit like a fairy tale.”

On television, she was in the cast of Small Secrets, Big Lies and therefore worked under the direction of Jean-Marc Vallée, whose work techniques taught her a lot.

“Marvel movies have always inspired me and made me dream. The fact of having worked with Jean-Marc Vallée is one of the reasons why I am part of this film, it is thanks to him that I had this role. You know, everything always leads somewhere, she said. I had a very small part in Little secrets, big lies, but Jean-Marc encouraged me to take my place, in the same way that Paul and Peyton did.”

“We believe that Shooting a Marvel will be a very technical exercise, but it was a very similar process to Little Secrets, Big Lies. Jean-Marc Vallée didn't want us to rehearse, we didn't rehearse for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. We have tried everything. We approached the characters of this Ant-Man like those of an independent production and we focused on the heart of the story which, at its heart, is that of a father and his daughter. I like to say that this film is a “road movie” through the quantum realm, a “road movie” between a father and his daughter. And when you think about it, it's a low-budget movie,” concluded Kathryn Newton.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is hitting cinema screens in the province as of February 17.

Kang the Conqueror, the Very Bad Villain…

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the film that not only inaugurates the fifth phase of the MCU, but also features Kang the Conqueror, the new enemy of superheroes.

Jonathan Majors played the villain in the Loki series and he reconnects with his character, giving details of importance during the press conference.

“Who is Kang? I believe that's a question we're going to be answering for a very long time.”

“The quick answer is that Kang is a time-traveling super villain and also a 'Nexus Being' [ Editor's note: a being capable of modifying the future, like Wanda Maximoff, Vision and…Jean Grey], which opens up this notion of possible variations.”

“There are thus multiple versions of variations of Kang. These occupy different universes, different multiverses. They have different intentions because they are completely different people.”